Chapter 26: Converging Storylines
What exactly led me to this? Pity for Ivory? Unlikely, because I hated her guts. So, what was it then?
Maybe I wanted to die the same way Lois got killed. That thought made sense, but it was such an unpleasant thought, so I used my power to suppress my emotions, letting me think this through objectively. I started profiling myself, arranging data in my head, and trying to figure out what made me tick.
The possibilities were endless, yet patterns kept emerging. The other me must have tried to delete the memories of Lois or the past, but he couldn’t do it—probably out of fear that he’d never get them back. So, he went through the stages of grief and got stuck at bargaining.
It was also possible that this was an attempt to play the superhero, something Lois wanted to do but I rejected it. I sighed. Why was life so fucking complicated?
While others had tragic backstories as their origin story, I had girlfriend issues. It sucked. I should treat my ambition more seriously. It wasn’t a lie when I said all I wanted was a normal life. But to see that through, I could only make the hard choices from now on.
"I want my peace back."
My time with Lois had been a bad idea. I’d lived just fine when I was alone. Maybe it was time to go back to that, to the simplicity of solitude.
What was it exactly that made the past me erase my own memories?
“It’s highly likely he had done the necessary steps already to damn Ivory, and what was left was for me to stab the knife and twist it.”
I could see it happening. I could be pretty brutal when it suited me—and petty too.
“Hmmm… this is annoying… parts of my memories of the game have been erased.”
While most characters in the game Versus had inhuman sides to them, they also had human sides. Every character, no matter how twisted, had that part of them that made them shine, that made them endearing, that made players identify with them. Ivory should be the same.
“Yet my memories of Ivory are only filled with her brutality and dark sides.”
I examined my memories of the game and the other characters: each and every one of them, despite their flaws, possessed qualities that made players sympathize. Versus had always focused on a gray theme, boasting a set of characters that didn’t easily conform to the superhero and supervillain narrative. It’s what made the game so compelling.
But now, with my memories clouded and skewed, it felt like the gray was bleeding out, leaving only the dark. The other me wanted revenge against Ivory, and to ensure I wouldn’t falter at the last moments, he erased parts of me that would have sympathized with her.
Ivory was a villain pretending to be a hero, and that was it: no need to agonize over it. I repeated this thought like a mantra, trying to cement it into my mind, but something still didn’t sit right with me. Despite everything, despite her darkness, there was a nagging doubt—a tiny flicker of something that refused to be extinguished.
It wasn’t pity. It wasn’t forgiveness. But perhaps… curiosity? Ivory’s actions, her choices—they weren’t random, but predestined. If I thought of it that way, it felt unfair. There had to be a reason, a motive buried deep within her twisted psyche. Maybe it was something I couldn’t see, or maybe the other me didn’t want to see it.
I shook my head, frustrated. This wasn’t the time for introspection. I had a job to do, and it didn’t involve dissecting the mind of a monster. Ivory deserved whatever was coming to her, no doubt about it. In the end, however, what I was doing wasn’t for myself… but for Lois.
But then again, Lois was already gone, depending on perspective, she was either dead to me or ran away from me.
Yet, as I prepared to take the next step, a strange thought crossed my mind. What if the other me, the one who erased these memories, wasn’t trying to make it easier for me to kill Ivory? What if, instead, he was protecting me from something? Something even worse than revenge.
The thought lingered, but I pushed it aside. This was no time for hesitation. I had to focus on the mission. I had to trust the process, trust that the other me had good reasons for his actions.
“The World Order was yet to send new operatives, which is good for me,” I began thinking things through. “Superhumans at Ivory’s level would be difficult to overcome. They possessed ultimate moves that could raze an entire city and more if forced into a corner. The game’s storylines of every character involved the destruction of a city and possibly worlds.”
Kane City would be done for. This was a fact. There was no need to agonize over it.
This was pretty much the Heartstopper’s storyline. In the game, Heartstopper was a ticking time bomb, a character whose mere presence threatened the balance of this world. His storyline was about despair, about how far a person could fall before they completely lost their humanity. It was dark, twisted, and filled with moments that made players question their own morals. Heartstopper wasn’t just a villain; he was the embodiment of every terrible choice a person could make, given the right—or wrong—circumstances.
Ivory wasn’t meant to be here. Back in the game, Heartstopper’s storyline would start two years later. However, because of me, I’ve advanced Heartstopper’s and Ivory’s storylines simultaneously forcing two vastly different narratives together.
The plan was, by advancing Heartstopper’s storyline, I could force Ivory’s worst ‘bad end.’ The first time I thought of this strategy, I thought I was crazy. Who would willingly unleash a monster like Heartstopper just to take down another? But then, as the pieces started to fit together, the plan made more and more sense. Heartstopper was a force of nature, a weapon too dangerous to be left unchecked. If I could guide him, if I could steer him towards Ivory, then maybe—just maybe—I could take them both out.
It was risky, but every option I had was. The other me, the one who’d erased my memories, must’ve seen this too. He must’ve known that to kill Ivory, I’d have to do something drastic, something no sane person would consider. But was I sane any more? Or had I crossed that line the moment I decided to play God with the lives of these characters?
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
I didn’t know, and I wasn’t sure I cared. The only thing that mattered was ending this, one way or another— it needed a conclusion. Would I follow through with the revenge I promised or not?
“Heartstopper,” I whispered to myself, feeling a chill run down my spine. “Let’s see how much destruction you can really cause.”
Heartstopper was your definitive criminal overlord who liked hiding his face, and would only make meaningful moves. He was virtually and eternally youthful. Plus, he could reanimate the dead, unleash lightning as if it were divine punishment, and sly enough that he had been dubbed the trickster god as the game progressed.
I would go so far as to say Heartstopper was among my top five who had the most awesome storyline progressions: cure the insanity sickness brought by superpowers, rebuild the Order in his image by rapidly rising through their ranks, and he’d get to resurrect his wife.
Heartstopper’s storyline was about trumping obstacles with the power of love.
It was twisted, in a way. The same love that fueled his greatest triumphs also drove him to commit unspeakable acts. In the game, he was a character you couldn’t help but root for, even as you watched him descend into darkness. His story was a tragedy wrapped in the guise of an anti-hero’s journey—a man who would stop at nothing to bring back the one person he loved more than anything.
On the darkest of nights, devoid of stars and steeped in an eerie serenity, I pushed open the door to Heartstopper’s office. The silence was almost tangible as I stepped inside, cloaked in a hoodie with a plain white mask obscuring my face—the same mask I wore the first time I crossed paths with Heartstopper, also known as Christian Holt. He was the undisputed leader of the notorious Dead Whore gang and the shadowy figure behind Kane Chaplaincy.
“If it isn’t the nobody,” he greeted me with a cold smirk.
“Busy, aren’t you?” I replied, my voice carrying a hint of disapproval.
“I almost forgot about you. Haven’t heard from you for months,” he remarked, his tone dripping with indifference.
Navigating past Heartstopper’s security had been a trivial task for someone of my power, though the extensive camera surveillance system had posed a slight challenge. Nevertheless, I managed to infiltrate the place without triggering a single alarm.
“I want to make a deal,” I began with an unyielding edge.
“Deal? What could you possibly offer that I might want?” Heartstopper leaned back in his chair, eyes narrowing with a mixture of curiosity and skepticism. “I’m a businessman, Nobody, and don’t take it the wrong way, but I’m a very busy man.”
“At this point, Ivory should have extended you a recruitment offer,” I continued, ignoring his dismissal.
“Interesting… how did you know that? Are you working with her?” His tone shifted, the edge of suspicion creeping in. “And here I thought we could have been good friends.
“Chris… no, Heartstopper, you should accept Ivory’s offer,” I urged, my words deliberate and measured.
To most, Chris was just a business mogul associated with Dead Whore and Heartstopper as the charismatically dangerous superhuman, but those truly in the know understood that Chris and Heartstopper were two sides of the same coin. Chris was the public face, the figurehead, while Heartstopper was the enforcer, the shadowy leader pulling the strings from behind the scenes.
Chris sighed with a hint of weariness in his voice. “Unfortunately, Ivory and I didn’t see eye to eye… we just didn’t share the same interests.” He leaned forward, resting his elbows on the desk as he studied me with calculating eyes. “She’s ambitious, I’ll give her that, but our goals don’t align. And frankly, I’m not in the habit of making deals that don’t benefit me.”
I could sense the tension in his words, the subtle hint that Ivory’s offer hadn’t been well-received. It was a typical power play, a clash of titans in a world where alliances were as fragile as the trust they were built on.
“And what about you, Nobody?” Chris continued, his tone sharp. “Why are you so eager for me to accept her offer? What’s in it for you?”
Ivory’s storyline in the game was one of the most captivating arcs, a slow descent from celebrated hero to feared antagonist. She began as the poster child of the World Order, a shining example of what a superhero should be—elegant, powerful, and adored by the masses. Her public persona was carefully crafted, a symbol of hope and justice in a world teetering on the edge of chaos. Ivory’s image was everywhere: billboards, commercials, news broadcasts. She wasn’t just a hero; she was a brand, designed to elevate hero worship to a new, almost religious level.
As the game progressed, however, cracks in Ivory’s perfect facade began to show. Her actions became increasingly ruthless, her methods more violent. The player started to see glimpses of the darkness within her, moments where she would cross the line in the name of justice. At first, these instances were subtle, and easily dismissed as necessary evils in the fight against crime. But as the story unfolded, it became clear that something far more sinister was at play.
Ivory’s true colors were revealed as she began to reject the very principles she was supposed to uphold. Her growing frustration with the World Order’s bureaucracy and the limitations placed on her led to a rebellion—one aimed directly at the organization that had once held her up as their shining star. She started to question the purpose of heroes, the very concept of good and evil, and whether the World Order was truly the force for good it claimed to be.
Her rebellion was not just physical but ideological. Ivory began to challenge the World Order’s authority, rallying others to her cause. She exposed their corruption, their hypocrisies, and slowly built an army of disillusioned heroes and citizens who shared her vision of a new world—one where power wasn’t held by a select few but by those willing to seize it. The lines between hero and villain blurred as Ivory’s revolution gained momentum, turning her from a symbol of hope into a symbol of fear.
By the time the player reached the final stages of her storyline, Ivory had become a force of nature, her actions threatening to plunge the conquered worlds into chaos. She was no longer the hero the many worlds needed, but the villain it deserved—a cautionary tale of what happens when power is unchecked and ideals are twisted by ambition.
“What’s in it for me, you asked?” I grinned behind the mask, feeling the thrill of the game’s twisted logic wrap around me like a comforting shroud. “I feel like killing her in the most miserable way. Think of it as an unfulfilled business. That’s all.”
Heartstopper frowned, his eyes narrowing in suspicion. “Revenge?”
“Maybe,” I answered, the uncertainty in my voice almost foreign to my ears. “I’m still thinking about it, but I felt like seeing her first hang before the cliff’s edge before deciding.”
“I never took you for a crazy person, but how does this benefit me?” he pressed, the impatience clear in his tone. “You are wasting my time…”
I leaned in slightly, letting the weight of my words settle between us. “Whatever you are doing isn’t enough for you to get a seat at the Order’s table. You’d need to conquer the whole world for our space overlords to look at you, which would take years. Listen to me—raise the rebellion from behind the scenes, turn them into a problem the Order couldn’t ignore, and before they come to fix things up, you’d come sweeping in, saving the world. You’d become a celebrated hero, and the World Order will finally look at you.”
As if possessed by a demon, I watched as Heartstopper’s eyes gleamed with interest, his attention now fully locked onto me. I had him—hook, line, and sinker—clinging to my every word.
“To further escalate, you only need to do one thing for me,” with deliberate slowness, I took a piece of the envelope hiding underneath my hoodie. “Give this love letter to Ivory, and then the dominoes shall fall.”
"Alright," Hearstopper softly acknowledged, his voice steady and resolute. "Let’s do this. But know this, Nobody—if you betray me, I’ll make sure you regret it."
I met his gaze, unflinching. "I wouldn’t expect anything less."
With that, our fates were sealed. The convergence of two storylines gave birth to a new one—my storyline. One that would be written in blood, betrayal, and the twisted logic of a world where heroes and villains were one and the same.